Self Concept as a Correlate of Academic Achievement: A Review Analysis

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1 The International Journal of Indian Psychology ISSN (e) ISSN: (p) Volume 5, Issue 1, DIP: / DOI: / October-December, 2017 Review Self Concept as a Correlate of Academic Achievement: A Review Analysis Monika 1 *, Dr. Gagandeep Kaur 2 ABSTRACT Academic achievement is the central aim of all formal educational efforts is, on the part of the students. Even though, it is desirable to have all-round development as a goal of educational process, where academic achievement would be just one of the dimensions; but in most of the educational institutions, academic achievement continues to be the exclusive concern, narrowing down the very concept of educational process. Nevertheless, it is important to note that achievement in curricular subjects is not an independent phenomenon. Rather, it is directly influenced by a number of factors, some of which are personal to the individual while many others are located in the environment in which learning process takes place. Thus in order to fully understand the concept, as well as, the process of academic achievement, it is imperative to identify and explore various factors related to the academic achievement. This paper primarily laid emphasis on self concept, its development and how it relates to the academic achievement of adolescents. As a good self concept enables a child to accept responsibility to achieve success in school and to grow into a productive member of society while a poor self concept leads to difficulty in accepting responsibility, fear, apathy, anxiety, defensiveness and lack of success in school. Keywords: Academic achievement, Self concept, Adolescents. Academic achievement means knowledge attained or skill developed in the school subjects, usually designated by the test scores or by marks assigned by teachers or by both. Academic /achievement is the important outcome of any educational setup. It is influenced by so many factors both personal and social. Academic achievement and its correlates is a popular field of research. The major factors contribute to academic achievement are intelligence, adjustment, self esteem, self concept, time perception, peer group relation, family relationships, home and school environments,achievement motivation etc. The importance of self-concept within educational settings has been addressed by several scholars. It is the totality of a complex, organized and dynamic system of learned beliefs, attitudes and opinion that each person holds to be true about his or her personal existence (Purkey, 1988). 1 Research Scholar, Department of Education, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India 2 Assistant Professor, Department of Education, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India *Responding Author 2017 Monika & Kaur G; licensee IJIP. This is an Open Access Research distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any Medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

2 The term self-concept is a general term used to refer to how someone thinks about, evaluates or perceives themselves. To be aware of oneself is to have a concept of oneself. Self concept refers to the individual s perception or view of himself. It refers to those perceptions, belief, feelings, attitudes, and values, which the individual perceives about his own abilities and his status in the outer world. This self concept is influenced by one s physical self, personal appearance, dress and grooming by abilities and disposition, values, beliefs and aspirations. People with good self concept tend to be more accepting of others. High self esteem is related to independence and open mind. Baumeister (1999) provides the following self concept definition: "The individual's belief about himself or herself, including the person's attributes and who and what the self is". Carl Roger (1959) believes that the self concept has three different components: The view you have of yourself (self image) How much value you place on yourself (self esteem or self-worth) What you wish you were really like (ideal self) Origin and Development of Self Concept Self concept is not hereditary rather it develops in a person as a result of his interaction with the environment. It is a lifelong process. He learns more and more and develops himself. It is a product of learning experiences. Raimy (1943) said that the self-concept is the more or less organized perceptual object resulting from present and past self-concept. Self concept is the map which each person consult in order to understand himself, especially during moments of crises or choice. Jersild (1952) defined that a person s self-concept is the sum total of that entire he can call his. The self is a person s total subjective environment significance. The self constitutes a person s inner world as distinguished from the outer world consisting of all other people and things. Smith (1961) defined that self concept is as a person is perceived felt and thought of by himself. As he can perceive other objects and persons so he can perceive him, but as his perception of others is never entirely accurate, so this perception of himself is never entirely complete and accurate. Self concept is the totality of are individuals thought and feelings having references to oneself as an object. Obstruction, which Individual develops about attributes, capacities, objects and activities which he possess and pursue. The abstraction is represented by the symbol one which is a person s idea of himself. The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN (e) ISSN: (p) 101

3 Gale (1969) stated that man creates his world from experience around him. The development of self is a social product. According to him self concept does not come up suddenly. It is a mental process that begins during infancy and early childhood and continues till death. Hamachek (1981) defined self concept is the set of perceptions or reference points that the subject has about himself. That set of characteristics, attributes, qualities and deficiencies, capacities, limits, values and relationship that the subject knows to be descriptive of himself. Self concept is the totality of an individual s thought and feelings having references to oneself as an object. Ameerjan (1981) defined that self concept is nothing but attitude towards oneself. The self regarding attitude to him constitutes how person perceives himself in relation to others. Ossario (1998) revealed that the self concept is conceived as individual s summary formulation of his or her status. Development of Self Concept The development of self concept is a process of increasing differentiation from the general to specific. Each human is unique, each conception values into an enthusiams. Each birth presents a fresh organism out of myriad of differentiated and accumulating out of myriad of differentiated and accumulating me and him expressed of the child develops as he is exposed to 3 broad site of experience. A) At home B) In School C) In Community These agencies play an important role in the development of self concept. Aspects of Self Concept The self has many directions of which the following forms are popular : The per lined self : Per lined self is what a person is what a person think he is. It is influenced by his physical self, his physical appearances, dress and grooming by his abilities, his valued, his beliefs and aspirations. The proclaimed self of an individual is more otter called the self concept. The real self : It refers to what the person really is it includes what the individual is aware of and is not aware of. The real self mostly refers to the characterizes of the person as reassess objectively by other people. The ideal Self : It refer to what an individual thinks be would like to be. Butter and Heigh (1954) observed the ideal self as the organized concept lona pattern of characterizes and emotional states which as individual holds desirable for himself. The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN (e) ISSN: (p) 102

4 The Social self : This is self as me thinks others see him to be. This concept may not correspondent with other people perceptions of him. Even then, it has a major effect on his behavior. In general concept is our prosecution of us. It is our attitude, feelings and knowledge about our abilities, feelings, knowledge about our abilities, skills, appearance and social acceptability. The individual s awareness and indemnification with other organization and modes of conduct and perform ace are accomplished by specific attitudes towards others. Levanway (1955) has found out people with positive self images are all willing to accept criticism and suggestions. The gulf between a person s self concept and actual experiences is a chronic source of anxiety and can even result in mental disorder. Allport (1961) described personality as the dynamic organization with in individual of this psychological system that determines his characteristic behaviour and thought. Franken (1994) stated that self-concept gives rise to possible selves and it creates the motivation for behavior. Some researches have also been done in this area in India and various definitions of self-concept have also been given by different researchers. Saraswat and Gaur (1981) described self-concept as the individual s way of looking at himself as well as way of thinking, feeling and behaving. According to Ahluwalia (1999) self-concept seems to be a comprehensive and exhaustive area which can represent the personality at large and which gives direction to the whole life. Studies of the relationship between self-concept and achievement in educational settings have been a major focus of research and theory for many years (House, 1996; Hattie 1992; Hamachek, 1995; Marsh 1987). Studies On Self-Concept And Academic Achievement Deshmukh, N.H. (2000) designed to study to compare high and low self concept groups of junior college students with anxiety, achievement motivation, intelligence, goal discrepancy and academic achievement. 832 self-concept scores of students were classified into two extreme groups viz. high and low P73 and P27 being the cutting points. Results revealed that high and low self-concept groups of 57 Junior college students differed significantly on anxiety, n Ach, intelligence. These groups did not differ significantly on goal discrepancy and academic achievement. Lata Gairola (2001) made an attempt to examine the effects of castes and sex on the selfconcept of Adolescents. A total sample of 80 students (age group years) was taken from Government School of Srinagar Garhwal, and they were divided into four sub-groups (Non-SC. Boys, Non-SC. Girls, SC. Boys and SC. Girls). The self-concept scale of Pier- Harris, Hindi version by Ahluwalia S.P. (1969) was used. From results it was concluded that there was no significant effect of caste on integrated self-concept among these groups. However the SC adolescents had higher self-concept on physical appearance and attributes with less happiness and satisfaction. As regard to the effect of sex, the difference was found The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN (e) ISSN: (p) 103

5 significant in the dimensions intellectual and school status, physical appearance and attribute and anxiety in case of scheduled caste adolescents only. Jayshree Dhyani and Jignesh Prashnani (2002) made a study to know the significance of intervention programme to enhance the self-concept of the pre- 58 adolescents in school at Vallabh Vidhyanagar, District Anand in Gujarat. The sample consisted of total 60 normal students from VII class for an Experimental Group and Control Group. Findings show that the mean scores of an experimental group student in various areas of self-concept is significantly differing after an intervention. The mean score of control group in various areas of self-concept differed significantly after interval period. In short significant effects of an intervention programme on self-concept of pre-adolescents were found in the study. Anand and Padma (1978) reported trends on correlates of academic achievement. It was seen that anxiety, self-concept and adjustment affect academic achievement and academic adjustment. Covington (1989) reported that as the level of self-concept increases, so do the level of academic achievement scores and as the level of self-concept decreases, achievement decreases. Hasnain and Panwar (1989) studied self-concept with respect to levels of academic achievement and school background (private, public and government schools) on 180 students (60 from each type of school). Analysis of Variance was applied on data:- low, average and high academic achievers significantly differed in their self concept and had best, average and least self-concept scores respectively. Jain and Jayanti (1990) found that girls having high self-concept tended to select high academic goals and that positive self-concept and superior cognitive abilities went together significantly. Padhi (1991) investigated the relationship between environment, creativity, academic self-concept and academic achievement. It was found that the creative ability of students could predict their academic self-concept in all school subjects in a better way than their achievement differentiation. Marsh (1992) observed that the relationship of self-concept with school achievement was very specific. General self-concept and non-academic aspects of self concept were not related to academic work. General academic achievement measures were related moderately to academic success. Specific measures of subject-related self concept were highly related to success in that content area. Gage and Berliner (1992) found that level of school success, particularly over many years, predicts level of regards of self and one's own ability whereas level of self esteem does not predict level of school achievement. Schicke and Faga (1994) examined the contribution of self-concept and intelligence to the prediction of academic achievement among a total of 12l students of Grade IV, VI and VII. Results from Regression Analysis revealed that intelligence and self-concept accounted for maximum variance in academic achievement. The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN (e) ISSN: (p) 104

6 Munsie (1994) investigated levels of general academic and social self-concept among junior high school students. Results indicated no significant difference between groups on measures of general or social self-concept. No significant difference emerged between males and females on measures of self-concept, between talented and gifted participants scoring higher measures of IQ and achievement and those scoring lower. Rangappa (1994) studied the effect of self-concept on achievement in Mathematics and found that the students of Std. VII belonging to high self-concept group performed better in Mathematics than that of normal self-concept. Shupe (2001) examined the relationship between self-concept, social isolation and academic achievement. A Multi Variate Analysis of Co-Variance (MANCOVA) and Multiple Regression Analysis were used to determine the relationship between self concept, social isolation, disability status and academic achievement. The results indicated relatively small, but significant relationships and some interesting interactions were identified between the variables of sex and disability status. Quarisy and Turki (2011) indicated that self-concept and achievement motivation of high creative male and female adolescents is less than the low creative male and female adolescents. Self-concept and Achievement motivation of low creative male and female adolescents is less than the average and is greater than the high creative male and female adolescents. The results indicated that achievement motivation of the high self-concept of the male and female adolescents is greater than the average self-concept and is greater than the low self-concept. It also indicated that the achievement motivation of low average and high self-concept of private syllabus and state syllabus adolescent that the achievement motivation of the higher self-concept. Total adolescents are less than the average self-concept and are greater than the low self-concept. And the correlation between the creativity with their physical self, social self, temperament self, educational self, moral self, intellectual self and total self-concept of sub- samples are not significant. Importance of Self Concept Every body tries to establish some purpose for his being and appraises himself in terms of his capabilities in coping with surrounding and feels satisfied only if his self concept is adequate to his perception of needs, neither extra positive nor extra negative. Self concept is helpful to have adequate self assignment but still it is pastime self concept which may prove to be most promising in the development of intellectual and creative abilities understanding the self thus playing a better role in society. Which is significantly relative to the role of others, may help in better adjustment of individual which further leads to the development of good personality. An average man who lacks self concepts in depth, look upon the world through glasses which are discolored by the quality of his own unconscious, self image without self knowledge in depth. We can have no adult s but not only aging children who are armed with words and paints and clay atomic weapons. The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN (e) ISSN: (p) 105

7 It is concept of self which personifies the child as a whole. The Self concept is the child s way of looking at himself. It also signifies his way of thinking, feeling and behaving. We hold that a person s feeling and cognitive process of which he has awareness are the major components of self concept. Research has supported the belief that there is a persistent and significant relationship between self-concept and academic achievement, and the change in one seems to be associated with a change in other (Marsh 1992; Marsh and Craven, 1987). However, some researchers discussed that they have not been able to resolve the issue of the causal predominance between self-concept and academic achievement (Bryne, 1996; Hattie, 1992). That is, to find out whether academic self-concept influences academic achievement or vice versa. Many self-concepts researches have reported positive self-concept to have causal predominance over academic achievement (Shavelson & Bolus, 1982, Marsh, 1987). Marsh (1992) showed that the relationship of self-concept to school achievement is very specific. Better self-concept is associated with better scholastic achievement test (Raju 2013) and has a significant relationship between self-concept and academic achievement (Sikhwara 2014; Archana & Chamudeswari 2013). CONCLUSION As a conclusion, self-concept is very important and essential in developing a child personality. Teachers have to consider various factors that influence the development of more positive self-concept. These factors are style of parental upbringing, continuous failure, depression and internal self critic. At school, the development of student s self-concept depends on the focus of educators in educational psychology in classroom practice. A positive self-concept creates a positive classroom-learning environment that believed can contribute to good academic achievement by students. Acknowledgements The author appreciates all those who participated in the study and helped to facilitate the research process. Conflict of Interests: The author declared no conflict of interests. REFERENCES Allport, G. W. (1961). Pattern and growth in personality. Ameerjan, M. S., & Thimmappa, M. S. (1981). Lie scores revisited with reference to caste affiliation and SEL of the subjects. Psychological Studies. Anand, C. L. and Padma, I. S. (1978). Correlates of achievement: a trend report, in M. B. Buch (Ed.), Third survey of research of education, New Delhi : NCERT. Baumeister, R. F. (1999). The nature and structure of the self: An overview. In R. Baumeister (Ed.), The self in social psychology (pp. 1-20). Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press (Taylor & Francis). The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN (e) ISSN: (p) 106

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10 Saraswat, R. K., & Gaur, J. S. (1981). Approaches for the measurement of self-concept-an Introduction. Indian Educational Review, 16(3), Schicke, M. C., & Fagan, T. K. (1994). Contributions of self-concept and intelligence to the prediction of academic achievement among grade 4, 6, and 8 students. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 10(1), Shavelson R. J. & Bolus R. (1982). Self-concept: The Interplay of Theory and Method. Journal of Educational Psychology 74, Shavelson, R. J., & Bolus, R. (1982). Self concept: The interplay of theory and methods. Journal of Educational psychology, 74(1), 3. Shupe, M. J. (2001). Relationships between self-concept, social isolation, and academic achievement in college students with and without learning disabilities. Sikhwari T.D (2014): A study of the Relationship between Motivation Self- Concept and Academic Achievement of Students at a University of Limpopo Province, South Africa. International Journal of Educational Science 6(1) How to cite this article: Monika & Kaur G (2017). Self Concept as a Correlate of Academic Achievement: A Review Analysis. International Journal of Indian Psychology, Vol. 5, (1), DIP: / , DOI: / The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN (e) ISSN: (p) 109